Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Gets New Location

By CHELSEA FULLER

The front window is filled with TV’s, the girl at the cash register has blue and pink hair and the floor is covered in comic books.As strange as the description might sound, these are the sights that await at the new location of Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, a vintage store in downtown Fredericksburg.

The store opened for business three years ago at its previous location on Caroline Street, dedicated to supplying their customers with “the greatest threads and grooves in town.” The store offers a selection of used clothing, vinyl records, video games and various other used and vintage goods.

This past June, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades began calling 1009 Princess Anne St. home, but the mission remains the same.
“We moved because our old location needed a lot of renovations and upkeep,” said Mike Skinner, the owner and founder of the store. “The new location is so much bigger and was in better condition,” he said.

According to Skinner, when he and his staff moved into the new store this past April, they built out all the fixtures and countertops. In addition to new hardware, Skinner also decorated half of the store’s floors with pages from classic comic books. Along with extra space for more merchandise and larger game consoles, the new location also opens up new possibilities for the store.

While the previous location often hosted vinyl record parties and movie screenings, Princess Anne Street makes such events easier. The added space allows customers and fans to spread out in front of the store for movie screenings, which are shown on the many TV displays that occupy the front window of the store.

“We have way more room for those events now, and it’s a great location, being so close to the Otter House and Hyperion,” Skinner explained.

Isabella Batson, a sophomore at the University of Mary Washington, heard great things about the store from her friends, but previously had problems finding the store.

“I’m excited to hear about the new location because now I know exactly where to find the store, and it’s more convenient to get to,” said Batson. “I definitely want to check it out this year.”

Hopefully, more students will be able to discover the store for themselves at its new location.